Perl programmers are generally created by adapting previously bred, fully grown humans, often by whacking them in the head with a small mallet. ;-)

If you're trying to hire enough staff by breeding and raising programmers from birth, no wonder your costs are through the roof! Try adapting pre-build humans, not building them from scratch; it's simpler, more time-efficient, and more cost-effective!

Perl programmers aren't a breed; but if they were, they don't seem to be dying. Soldiers are a dying breed; as a civilians who piss off soldiers. ;-) Programmers don't tend to be singled out for dying.

It seems that here at least, Perl is a very expensive solution, because Java programmers are a dime a dozen.
Buy all the Java programmers you can; then upgrade them to Perl programmers. For a salary of $0.00833, you can absorb a lot of training costs.

Which is why the company has decided to convert all large perl applications into it's nemesis.. java

Java is a nemesis of Perl? Should I be worried that large roving gangs of Java thugs are going to beat me up, and take my lunch money? ;-) What about converted humans who are both Java programmers, C++ programmers, and Perl programmers? Do they have to form roving gangs to beat themselves up? :-)

Seriously, though, programming is a job; languages are just tools, not straitjackets. Hire people who will get the job done; don't fuss about the tools they use to do it.